Rape Crisis Center Case Study

I had the opportunity to visit the Rape Crisis Center. It is one of the programs of the larger, non-profit organization Partnership for Families, Children, and Adults (PFCA). In addition to touring the facility, I interviewed Caroline Huffaker, one of two case managers on staff, and Amy Griffin, the nursing director. The Rape Crisis Center offers holistic services that provide healing to victims of rape. These services include medical forensic exams (collection of evidence), medical screenings for other injuries, offer medications to help prevent sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy, case management, case advocacy, accompaniment to court (both civil and criminal) should the victim decided to press charges, resource management and referrals,

This includes a hierarchical structure of a board of directors consisting of 30 members, a president (Pat Neuhoff), a vice president (Carol Mastey), a chief executive officer (Sandra Hollett), a senior director (Regina McDevitt), a director of crisis services (Carmen Hutson) and the members of the Rape Crisis Center (Caroline Huffaker, Kristen Brannen and Amy Griffin). The Rape Crisis Center functions as an interdisciplinary team known as SART (sexual assault response team). It includes not only the three full time staff members, but also other members of the community of Chattanooga (law enforcement and D.A.’s office) and volunteers. Within the facility, volunteers are responsible for intake assessments and obtaining informed consent, the nurse conducts medical forensic exams and offers medication to prevent STIs and pregnancy, and the case managers are responsible for all of the other services previously mentioned that are specifically provided by the Rape Crisis Center (counseling, advocacy, etc.). Outside the facility, law enforcement officers receive special training in crisis with rape victims, build the cases for the victims who chose to report and make the necessary arrests; the D.A.’s office has a specific lawyer (Jason Demastus) who deals with all of these rape cases and works with law enforcement and the case managers throughout the

One type of stress the staff experience during the summer, and rest of the time for that matter, is stress due to extreme work hours. Their work hours consist of a 40-hour workweek, three on-call shifts a month and one 24-hour weekend shift each month. They experience stress due to their caseload as well. Because there is no-cap on clientele, the average caseload is about 80-100 clients, all of which are experiencing acute crisis. Finally, there is stress from knowing what goes on in our city. This information can make it difficult to leave “work at work”. To combat the fatigue that accompanies these types of stress, PFCA provides staff with free massages (given by local massage therapist who donate their time), health days (when staff member becomes mentally, emotionally or physically overwhelmed), and encouragement of wellness activities (potluck lunches, staff birthday parties, etc.). Overall, this experience provided me with an excellent example of how crisis intervention interdisciplinary teams